Lavinia Corina Miloşovici (born October 21, 1976 in Lugoj) (Serbian: Лавинија Милошевић, Lavinija Milošević) is a Romanian Olympic gymnast. An exceptionally successful athlete on the international competition circuit, Miloşovici, also known as "Milo" in the gymnastics community, is considered to be one of Romania's top gymnasts of the 1990s and one of the most prolific female all-around gymnasts of the decade, earning a total 19 World Championships or Olympic medals in a span of six years. She medalled in every single World Championships meet, Olympic Games and European Championships between 1991 and 1996, and is only the third female gymnast ever, after Larisa Latynina and Věra Čáslavská, to win at least one World Championships or Olympic title on all four events. Miloşovici was also the last gymnast ever to receive the perfect mark of 10.0 in an Olympic competition and the last to receive the benchmark score of 9.95 at the World Championships. She was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 2011.

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Early Life and Career

Lavinia Miloşovici was born on October 21, 1976 in Lugoj to Serb parents. Her mother, Ildiko, was a competitive volleyball player, while her father, Tănase, was a national team wrestler. She began gymnastics at the age of 6 and moved to the Deva National Training Centre as she excelled in the sport.

Miloşovici's gymnastics career was nearly derailed when she contracted scarlet fever at the age of 10, and again when the Romanian Revolution in 1989 temporarily closed Deva. However, she continued to train, and by 1990, was representing Romania in such international meets as the American Cup and the World Sports Fair. She competed well at the 1991 Junior European Championships, winning two gold medals.

Senior Career

Miloşovici made her debut as a senior in 1991, winning her first all-around title at the Romanian National Championships. She joined the Romanian team at the 1991 World Championships, where she contributed to the team's bronze medal and won her first individual World Championships title, on the vault, and placed third on the balance beam.

Miloşovici won her second individual world title on uneven bars at the 1992 World Championships. At the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, Miloşovici won a total of four medals, placing third in the all-around, second with the Romanian team, tying with Hungarian Henrietta Ónodi for the vault gold medal, and winning floor exercise with a perfect score of 10.0. Miloşovici's 10, in the event finals, was only the second awarded in Barcelona, and the last ever awarded at any Olympics.

After the 1992 Olympics, Miloşovici continued to compete, winning the world title on beam in 1993, which completed her quartet of golds on each of the individual apparatuses, and the world silver medal on vault that same year. In 1994 and 1995, she led the Romanian team to two World Championships team titles. Shortly before the 1994 World Championships, she and her teammates staged a strike at Deva to protest nonpayment of prize money owed from the Romanian Gymnastics Federation; in spite of the depleted training time, they still won the team gold medal at Worlds. Milosovici's best all-around finish in World Championship or Olympic competition came in 1994 when she took second to Shannon Miller in a controversial finish, after being largely considered the early favorite. Milo concluded the 1994 Worlds with a silver on floor and a bronze on vault. At the 1995 Sabae World Championships, she capture the all-around bronze.

Miloşovici led the Romanian team to a bronze at the 1996 Olympics, in spite of a spate of injuries that left the squad depleted of several key gymnasts and forced them to compete with only six athletes instead of seven. At the 1996 Olympics, Milo had the rare opportunity to improve upon her third place all-around finish in Barcelona and only because of her consistency did she take advantage of her competitors' mistakes, and she became the first gymnast since Nadia Comăneci to medal in the all-around at consecutive Olympics. This also marked her fourth all-around medal in World and Olympic competition, a feat equalled only by Svetlana Khorkina in recent decades.